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Heinz Werner: A Short Biography  Born: 1890 in Vienna, Austria; Died: 1964  Thought about becoming an engineer, but entered the University of Vienna hoping to become a composer & music historian  Accidentally entered a philosophy class, which sparked his interest from then on  Participated in the Gestalt movement in Hamburg  1933 Dismissed from Hamburg because he was Jewish  1936-1943 studied mentally impaired children  Taught at Brooklyn College, then Clark University

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Werner Vocabulary Orthogenic Principle: The developmental process of a child goes from a relative lack of differentiation to an increased state of differentiation. Synesthesia: The syncretic unity of the senses. Physiognomic Perception: The way one perceives stimuli when reacting to its emotional and expressive qualities. Self-Object Differentiation: Process by which children learn to differentiate themselves from the world around them. –Sensori-motor, Perceptual, Conceptual

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Jean Piaget: A Short Biography  Born in Switzerland in1896  Published first article at age 10  Earned P.H.D. in Natural Sciences  Studied his own children  Focused on children’s mistakes  Tested children’s ego-centric perception using the “3 Mountain Problem” Experiment

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Piaget Vocabulary Egocentrism: When a child regards everything from his or her own viewpoint; a child who is egocentric cannot distinguish between the viewpoints of others from his own.

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“Three Mountain Problem” Piaget designed this experiment to support his theory that children possess egocentric characteristics of thought during the preoperational period of cognitive development (Ages 1-7). After showing a child all sides of the mountain, he tested if the child could describe a side from the doll’s perspective.

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“Three Mountain Problem” (Cont.) Preoperational children failed to describe the mountain from the doll’s perspective The child typically described their own side of the mountain demonstrating egocentric perception

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Our Experiment We are investigating children’s perception and how it relates to synesthesia. Our experiment combines Piaget’s “Three Mountain Problem”, which focuses on perception, with Werner’s theory of synesthesia and the orthogenic principle. Lastly, we are analyzing the physiognomic perception of the children.

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Hypothesis 1—Orthogenic Principle 1.The older children are, the better they will remember what they see on the mountain because they will have had more time to develop their ability to perceive.

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Hypothesis 2—Synesthesia 2. The more exposure to the senses, the more experience the child will have to draw upon, thus perceiving things beyond himself. We believe that the children who have more exposure to different sensory domains will give more differentiated responses.

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Hypothesis 3—Physiognomic Perception 3. With more exposure to sensory domains, the children will give more physiognomic responses.

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Our Experiment Salvation Army After School Program Located 5 minutes away from campus Ages 6-12 years old Most kids were already familiar with Katie

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The Experiment Group arrives Explanation Starting on Collin Cow’s side, the group travels around the mountain. After the “tour”, the group sits down and, seeing only the icy side of the mountain, proceed to answer the questions.

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Experiment (Cont.) Group 1—SIGHT Group 2—SIGHT and SMELL Group 3—SIGHT, SMELL, and SOUND

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Results and Data Analysis Using our questionnaire, we compiled the answers received, along with biographical information, on various charts. We gave each child a point for each correct object remembered.

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Orthogenic Principle Whenever development occurs, it proceeds from a state of relative lack of differentiation to a state of increasing differentiation and hierarchic integration. Application: Our experiment tested whether or not the Orthogenic Principle is applicable with perception (i.e. the older the child, the better his or her ability to perceive and remember the different sides of the mountain).

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Analysis With a few exceptions, the orthogenic principle applies to the development of perception. Ruben (6) with 12 total Highest score: Miguel (11) with 15 total. Lowest score: Elisa (6) with 3 total.

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Synesthesia The syncretic unity of the senses. A condition in which normally separate senses are not separate. Sight may mingle with sound, taste with touch, etc. The senses are cross-wired. Ex. Hearing colors Application: With each new group in our “Three Mountain Problem” experiment adaptation, we added an additional sense to see if it had an effect on the children’s perception.

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Why Did Group 3 Perform the Way They Did? Carlos Source of Sound Looking at the Laptop More Females in Group 3 Do males perform better?

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Physiognomic Perception Perceiving stimuli through their dynamic, emotional, and expressive qualities as opposed to perceiving objective and measurable properties. Application: In our experiment, we asked the children questions (Questions 4 and 5) that we thought would provoke them to answer in a manner that would reflect physiognomic perception.

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Analysis Our results show that children do reflect physiognomic perception. However, the results are not substantial. Child did not answer both questions. There is no correlation between ages. Difficulty by the way we worded the question. Children asked what Questions 4 and 5 meant. Several were left blank.

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A Closer Look at Carlos Egocentric Perception –Beyond egocentric perception. He describes things from the perspective of the different animals.

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Conclusion Hypothesis 1—Orthogenic Principle: Correct! With the exception of Ruben, results showed that the older the child was, the more developed his perception was.

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Conclusion Hypothesis 2—Synesthesia: Wrong! (according to our results) Having more children involved in the experiment could have brought about more consistency. Sound should have been better concealed.

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If we could do it again… Do the experiment with more kids! Spend more time on each side of the mountain Add another sensory experience, like touch Conceal the source of sound Have the kids face the mountain when answering the questions Maybe ask about just one side of the mountain to create more focus Less interruptions, have a more isolated experiment environment Do the experiment with one subject at a time to prevent distractions Do the experiment with UD students Create more diverse groups

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Questions 1.Do males and females respond differently to different sensory experiences? 2.Why did Ruben, who was not only exposed to one sensory experience but also was 6 years old, respond better than most of the other subjects? 3.Why is Carlos at a higher perceptual level? 4.Do socioeconomic backgrounds affect the responses of the children? 5.Was our experiment too complex to get reliable results?